Sears and Kmart join Wal-mart and Target in No PVC Efforts

The Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ), posted a press release this week announcing that Sears Holdings, which include Sears and Kmart, will be joining Wal-mart and Target in actions to reduce and phase out products and packaging containing the toxic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic, more commonly known as vinyl. According to CHEJ, as much as 7 billion pounds of PVC are discarded every year in the U.S. PVC disposal is the largest source of dioxin-forming chlorine and phthalates in solid waste, as well as a major source of lead and cadmium which pose serious health threats.

Part of their new efforts, Sears Holding is encouraging product makers to label their PVC-free merchandise as well as research to find safer alternatives. An excerpt from the press release:

Recent reports indicate that the world stock of PVC in use contains 3.2 million tons of lead. Lead can damage the brain and nervous system, cause behavior, learning and developmental disabilities, and decreased IQ. Previous testing has detected lead in a broad range of PVC consumer products including toys, lunch boxes, baby bibs, jewelry, garden hoses, mini blinds, Christmas trees, and electronics.

A report released just last week — http://healthytoys.org/home.php — found that almost one half of all toys tested are made out of PVC, which often contain phthalates. Exposure to phthalates have been linked with premature birth delivery, early puberty in girls, impaired sperm quality and sperm damage in men, genital defects, and reduced testosterone production in boys. Over ninety percent of all phthalates are used in PVC products and are often found in many toys such as rubber duckies and bath books.

Read the entire press release on the CHEJ website. And if you really want the full scary list of the harm PVC does to us and the environment, check out their findings here. I recently found some character plate sets at Target and was surprised to see a No PVC symbol on the box. I hope this trend continues!

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Most of your information regarding PVC is inaccurate at best. First things first. No form of PVC, EVER contains heavy metals such as lead or cadmium. If it has been painted with lead paint then it does. However,lead paint should never be used in certain applications and we already know this. Also, there are two different classifications regarding PVC. There is rigid PVC and flexible PVC. The difference between the two is remarkable. Rigin PVC, such as you would find in vinyl siding and PVC piping, does not contain phthalates. The flexible PVC used in blood bags and shower curtains does. This difference must be addressed as it is the crux of this entire issue. Let’s first start with Rigid PVC. Rigid PVC is virtually harmless unless it is incinerated. Once incinerated, just like everything else it does release dioxins (dioxins are the cancer causing agents). However, so does burning wood, paper and virtually anything else. If recycled and disposed of properly rigid PVC is HARMLESS!!! Flexible PVC contains phthalates which is the additive that makes rigid PVC, flexible PVC. There is much discussion, debate and misinformation regarding phthalates. There is no conclusive evidence anywhere that says with 100% certainty that flexible PVC does any harm in its’ usuable state. However again upon incineration, like everything else, dioxins are released. Again if properly recycled and handled, there is no harm or risk here either. In its’ usuable unadultered state, both rigid and flexible PVC do not pose a health risk. There are more dioxins released each year through forest fires than all of the manufacturer and disposal of plastics combined. PVC has been a part of our lives since it was first invented back in 1912 by Fritz Klatte. If PVC was as dangerous as you are being lead to believe, don’t you think we would have figured it out sooner. And remember it is easy to make a blanket statement that we must ban something but it’s another thing entirely to find a suitable, cost effective replacement. Imagine living without your rain coat, rain boots, shower curtain, blood/ IV bags, vinyl siding and plastic piping. Oh yea and remember records? What do you think those were made out of…you guessed it PVC. And while you read this post take a minute to look around and note all of the things in you life that are made from plastic and ask yourself, could I really do without this stuff? Doubtful indeed.

I’m a sceptic so if you could please define “reliable source” I would appreciate it. Also isn’t the purpose of this website to educate in the best interest of the parent and child? If so, than allowing misinformation to permeate this site is an injustice. I’m sure your intentions are good but instead of everyone jumping on the band wagon, it would be nice to see people actually presented with both sides of the story. Otherwise let’s hide in our bunkers until Chicken Little tells us it’s safe again.

p.s. Maybe we should think about banning swimming pools and hot tubs as there is enough airborne chlorine there to last a life time.

I provided the source of this articles information in both the post itself and in my previous reply.

Also isn’t the purpose of this website to educate in the best interest of the parent and child?

Yes, as a matter of fact it is. It’s here to educate parents on what we find. It’s up to the parent to make the right choices for their family. I posted on an article WRITTEN BY SOMEONE ELSE. Go tear them a new one if you have a bone to pick over PVC.

Just because I care, I’m going to lay out for you, and anyone else who is interested, the total amount of energy and cost extended from point-topoint on paper, glass, aluminum and plastic products. Plastic, paper, aluminum, glass or otherwise, there are reasons we use and consume things we do. Ultimately it comes down to cost, cost and cost. I don’t image if a jar of peanut butter suddenly cost $10.00 because we put it in a glass container over plastic that any of us would be too happy. If you would like to you should try this interesting exercise. Find a product that is available in two or more packaging mediums (i.e. glass, aluminum, plastic or paper.)but contains the same amount of product. A good example would be a 12 oz. plastic bottle of soda, a 12 oz. glass bottle of soda and a 12 oz. can of soda. Now take the empty containers and weigh them (you’ll need a accurate and sensitive scale to do this properly). Now figure out how many of those containers in each of the different mediums it would take to reach 800 lbs. 800 lbs. is a good weight for a skid of product. You now know approx. how many containers you can get per skid. Now take that number and multiply it by 30 as this is an average number of single stacked skids of product for a semi trailer. For the total weight you’ll take 800 x 30 which equals 24,000 lbs. Now for each of the different mediums write down how many pieces you can get on a truck. The differences here tell us everything we need to know about the how and they why items are packaged the way they are. This difference represents the total amount of trucks (i.e. total amount of fuel consumed, pollution, and labor costs) it will to ship said containers from point of origin to their intended destination and ultimately to your door. Ultimately it is the total cost and amount of energy/ pollution created that is important. Unless of course something involved with this procees is without dispute dangerous and carcinogenic. I hope this helps.

P.S.

I’m an economics professor at a University in New York but good guess.

I Googled the American Plastics Council after I sent the last response and although there isn’t an American Plastics Council there is an American Plastics Chemical council. Ironically enough I found this article on their site. It is a little more in depth than mine but again supports my position/ logic based on statistics. Read below for more.

From the manufacturer to the grocer and to our dinner tables, airtight plastic packaging helps keep foods fresh and free from contamination. In the refrigerator, plastics help to make bottles lighter and shatter-resistant, so it’s safer and easier to lift and serve our favorite beverages. In the medicine cabinet, plastics make possible child-resistant closures for pharmaceuticals. And, when it comes to big-ticket purchases, plastic packaging helps to protect items like appliances and electronics, until they arrive safely in our homes.
But plastics don’t just make packaging more effective; they can also make packaging more efficient, helping to conserve resources. Learn how plastics are enabling us to reduce, reuse, recycle and recover the energy and materials used to create packaging.

Reduce
Plastics help us to do more with less in many ways. When it comes to packaging, plastics often enable manufacturers to ship more product with less packaging material. This process of light-weighting can play an important role in boosting the environmental and economic efficiency of consumer product packaging. Consider these examples:

Delivering more beverage with less packaging. Just 2 pounds of plastic can deliver 1000 ounces – roughly 8 gallons – of a beverage. Three pounds of aluminum, 8 pounds of steel or 27 pounds of glass would be needed to deliver the same amount.

Making food packaging more efficient. Plastic jars can use up to approximately 90 percent less material by weight than their glass counterparts. Plastic containers also can use about 38 percent less material than similarly sized steel cans. And extremely lightweight, flexible packaging made from plastic or plastic-and-foil composites can use up to 80 percent less material than traditional bag-in-box packages.

Continuously improving through innovation. Plastics are re-engineered to become lighter and more efficient all the time. Today’s 2-liter plastic beverage bottle and 1-gallon milk jug weigh approximately 33 percent less than they did in the 1970s.

Eliminating excess packaging. By replacing the classic fiberboard container, plastic loop carriers can reduce waste by 1.88 ounces per twelve-pack of beverage – or 722 pounds per truckload. And marketers of snack foods, cosmetics and single-serve meals are using colorful shrink film labels to add shelf-appeal right on their containers, eliminating the need for economically and environmentally costly outer boxes.

Trimming waste. Weight-reduced packaging also helps to reduce the amount of waste generated or the amount of a material that needs to be recycled after a package is used.
Reuse
Plastic’s durability makes it a preferred material for reusable items such as storage bins, sealable food containers and refillable sports bottles. In industrial shipping, plastic pallets are impervious to moisture and most chemicals, so they can be used over and over. For commercial produce shipments, plastic produce crates are durable, easy-to-clean, and cost-effective. In addition to conserving raw materials, choosing reusable items, where appropriate, helps to offset trash disposal costs and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills.

Recycle
Since the early days of plastics recycling in the 1970s, the nation’s recycling infrastructure has grown significantly1. In fact, the pounds of post-consumer plastic packaging collected and recycled has grown every year since 1990. Today, over 80 percent of U.S. households have access to plastic recycling programs, and in 2005, more than 2.1 billion pounds of plastic bottles were collected for recycling.

Although bottles remain one of the most readily recycled plastics, a growing number of communities are collecting and recycling other rigid plastic containers, such as tubs, trays and lids. And many national grocery and retail chains now invite consumers to return used plastic bags for recycling.

Through these programs, plastics are collected, processed for recycling and used to create second-generation products ranging from fleece jackets and detergent containers to carpeting and composite lumber for outdoor decking.

Energy Recovery
Another way to conserve resources is to recover the energy value of plastic packaging items after their useful life has ended. Traditional plastics are made from natural gas and, to a lesser extent, petroleum. Although plastics play a role in nearly every facet of our lives, plastics production accounts for only 5 percent of the nation’s annual consumption of natural gas and petroleum. Packaging, the largest market for plastics, accounts only for 1.4 percent.

Because the energy value of plastics is equivalent to fuel oil, plastics are a great source of fuel for waste-to-energy plants. When plastics are processed in modern energy recovery facilities, they help other wastes burn completely, producing cleaner emissions and less ash for disposal. Burning plastic can help supply an abundant amount of energy for electricity, while reducing the cost of municipal waste disposal and conserving landfill space.

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Started back in 2007, a new mother on a quest to collect safe product information for her then 1 year old son. Now a mother of two boys, she continues to help parents make sense of the world of child safety.Read on...